{Social Development}

One thing I truly miss about the “old” days is, being a blog stalker! The last time I took a quick peek into the blog life world, was when I posted a short piece about the happenings of the children and even then, I didn’t get a chance to read the happenings of others. 

Before my body and mind gave out on me at 9:30 last night (yes I said 9:30...on a Friday night), I had a chance to visit one of my favorite blogs. I say favorite because, this blog happens to belong to a family who is very near and dear to my heart. The blog happens to belong to family who was brought into my life because of the military. Almost 14 years ago, this family welcomed us with open arms as we crossed over into the military side of life. This family was our first military family!

It’s amazing to me how the military life works. Moving around is not my favorite part. For those of you who know me well, you know that I don’t do very good with change. I can adapt (eventually) but it’s not something that comes easy. There are however some positives to moving. The one thing that I can say above anything else is that moving around the past 13 years has brought many people into our lives. The people that have been brought into our lives have literally become our family! What is even more amazing to me is that you can go months or years without seeing each other or talking to each other but that bond that was once created, NEVER ever goes away. I know that even though I haven’t seen some of my favorite military family members in 1, 2, or even 10 years, that if our family of 5 were to knock on their doors, we would be welcomed, embraced, and things would pick up exactly where they left off.

Getting back on track, I had a moment to sit and catch up on a few happenings that are going on over at Planet Caddick. As I read, I realized that I have missed out on A LOT of things. I feel like such a loser of a friend these days. There is so much going on around me and I have missed out on most of it! I have always had an awesome support team and lately, I feel like I have not given back my support in return. Uhm...EPIC FAIL on my part!!!  

The days seem to get away from me. Yesterday as I was cleaning up my classroom after a week full of apples, Johnny Appleseed, apples, and more apples, I realized that I have to change the calendar to October!!! Wait...What??? October is here already?!?!? How in the world did that happen?!?!? Life keeps moving forward and there is no way to slow it down! Moral of my story, figure out a way to keep up with life before it passes you by!

On a slightly different note, I know there are some of you who have been anxiously waiting to hear the news from this week’s big 7^th grade event.

A while back ago, I mentioned something about how Ms. Bry would be participating in a school unit called Social Development. Once again, I had no idea how BIG of a deal this was. I did however quickly learn after shopping with 3 preteen girls just how important this event is for the 7^th grade class.

Let me quickly explain that Social Development is a weeklong unit that consumes the life of a 7^th grader. During this week, the students learn etiquette and manners. This past week, Bry has been learning things like how to set the table properly, how to eat properly, and how to sit and exit the table during a meal. She learned appropriate table conversation skills and she even learned a few new dances like the foxtrot, the cha cha, and the waltz. The students end the unit by attending a huge luncheon and dance where they have to show all of the skills they mastered. YES, they are graded on this entire event!

Moving back to just how big of deal this was, we had to find the perfect dress, the perfect shoes, just the right hair accessories, and yes even a little make-up too. We had to pay a visit to the hair salon for that perfect hair style and the nail salon for those pretty French tips. ALL of this for Social Development!!! I can’t even begin to imagine what homecoming is going to be like!!! I guess I better start preparing now since it’s only a year away!

I was sworn to secrecy about the details of the “look”. Bry made a pact with her friends that they wouldn’t reveal their dresses until the day of the event.

Before

After

Social Development was a huge success! Bry had A LOT of fun. She lost count of the amount of times she was asked to dance. They actually had set rules about the dance. The boys had to ask at least 3 girls and the girls had to ask at least 1 boy. If you were asked to dance, you could not say no. Poor girl had blisters on her feet. All you ladies out there can relate to wearing those cute new shoes on the dance floor!

My baby girl is blossoming into quite a beautiful and simply amazing young lady!